Carlebach is considered by many to be the foremost Jewish religious
songwriter in the second half of the 20th century. In a career that spanned over
30 years, he recorded more than 25 music albums that still have wide popularity
and appeal. His influence also continues to this day in so-called "Carlebach minyanim" located in
many cities around the globe, including those in Israel.

Carlebach was also considered a pioneer of the Baal teshuva
("returnees to Judaism") movement, encouraging Jewish youth who had become hippies to
re-embrace their Jewish heritage. However, some of his outreach tactics were
viewed as too liberal by Orthodox standards and not in line with Halakha by
proponents of mainstream Orthodox Judaism.

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Shlomo Carlebach's ancestors comprised one of the oldest rabbinical dynasties
in pre-HolocaustGermany.

Shlomo Carlebach was born in Berlin, where his father, Rabbi
Naftali
Carlebach, was an Orthodox Rabbinic Authority. The family fled the Nazis in 1933 and
lived in Baden bei Wien, Austria before
coming to New York City in 1939. His
father became the rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jacob, a small synagogue on
West 79th Street in New York's Upper West Side; Shlomo
and his twin brother Eli Chaim took over the rabbinate of the synagogue after
their father's death in 1967.

As is engraved on his tombstone, he became a devoted Hasid ("disciple") of
Rabbi Joseph Isaac
Schneersohn (1880-1950) the sixth Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch. From
1951-1954, he subsequently worked as the first emissaries (shluchim) of
Rabbi Menachem Mendel
Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, until he departed to form his
successful model for outreach, literally teaching hundreds of thousands of Jews
worldwide

Reb Shlomo and his wife, Neila, had two daughters, Nedara (Dari) and Neshama.
Neshama Carlebach is a
songwriter and singer with her own following who has written and sung many songs
in her father's style.

He died suddenly of a heart attack while
travelling on an airplane to
relatives in Canada. Seated next to him was
the Skverer Rebbe,
they were singing the Rebbe's favorite melody, which Shlomo had composed.

Reb Shlomo was very close with many famous Hassidic Rebbes, including the Amshinover Rebbe
and Bobover Rebbe.
Shlomo is regarded as one of the most successful Kiruv personalities of the 20th
century, second only to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel
Schneerson, reaching many Jewish souls through his outreach, music and
teaching.

Publicity poster circa early 1980s portraying him as "The
Singing Rabbi"

Reb Shlomo began writing songs in the 1950s, primarily based on verses from
Tanakh set to his
own music. Many of his soulful renderings of Torah verses became standards in
the wider Jewish community, including Am Yisrael Chai ("[The] Nation [of]
Israel Lives"—composed on behalf of Soviet Jewry in the mid-1960s), Pischu
Li ("Open For Me [The Gates of Righteousness]") and Barchi Nafshi
("May My Soul Bless God").

His public singing career began in Greenwich Village,
where he met Bob Dylan and other folk
singers. He sought out and used the same producers as used by famous folk
records.

He moved to Berkeley for the
1966 Folk Festival. After his appearance, he decided to remain in the San Francisco Bay
Area to reach out to what he called "lost Jewish souls"—runaways and
drug-addicted youth. He opened a center called the House of Love and Prayer in
Haight-Ashbury, where he
reached out to disaffected youth with song and communal gatherings. He became
known as "The Singing Rabbi." Through his music and his innate caring, many Jews
feel that he "saved" thousands of Jewish youngsters and adults.

Marsha Bryan Edelman wrote:

"Some of the other Carlebach melodies that became regular parts of worship
services were written for entry into Israel's annual Hasidic Song Festival. In
1968 a small-budget Israeli play called Ish Hasid Haya (Once There Was a
Hasid) brought traditional Hasidic songs and stories to the generally
nonobservant masses who filled its audiences. The success of this material
inspired enthusiasts to revitalize Hasidic music by soliciting songs--in an
ostensibly Hasidic style--to be presented in an annual Israeli festival,
starting in 1969. The fascination with most things Israeli on the part of many
American Jews after the 1967 Six-Day War led Israeli promoters to bring a
version of the Hasidic Song Festival to North American audiences." [1]

Carlebach appeared as part of the Chassdic Song Festival in 1969, along with
the Duo Reim, Tzvikah Pick, Nurit Hirsh, and others. This became a yearly event
until 1979 with an album produced each year. These albums brought his music into
mainsteam Israeli and religious Zionist circles. During this time, his albums
were produced in Israel with a more liturgical and less folk music sound.Some of
the muscians that he worked with during this period gave his music a more
psychodelic tinge and a wider range of backup instrumentation. During this
period, while Carlebach spent much of his time in Israel, his students founded
Moshav Mevo Modiim.

Edelman continues:

"The only things "Hasidic" about most of these songs were their relatively
short melodies and traditional lyrics. Still, the presence of catchy new tunes
for brief liturgical texts encouraged the use of many of these songs in the
prayers of American Jews looking for easy-to-learn melodies and more
congregational singing--even by congregants who were not fluent in Hebrew.
Carlebach's ve-Ha'er Einenu quickly jumped back into the morning services from
which its lyrics were taken."[2]

On his return to NYC as his base, he increasingly was known for his stories
and Chassidic teachings. As part of his performances he spoke of inspirational
subjects, rooted in Hasidism and Kabbalah. Some of his teachings
have been published by his students and many appear alongside his recorded
songs. Carlebach spread the teachings of Chabad, Breslov, and he popularized the
writings of R. Mordechai Yosef
Leiner of Izbitz. For many of his listeners, Carlebach's Neo-Hasidism was taken as
authentic Chassidism and became a bridge back into Chasidism.

In the years since his death, Carlebach music has been embraced by many
different faiths as universally accepted spiritual music. Carlebach songs and
niggunim (tunes) can be heard today in synogogues, churches, gospel choirs and
temples worldwide.

Carlebach's approach towards kiruv, or Jewish outreach, was often
tinged with controversy:

"He operated outside traditional Jewish structures in style and substance,
and spoke about God and His love in a way that could make other rabbis
uncomfortable."[3]

At times, he would encourage mixed (men and women) dancing at his concerts
and would often kiss woman upon greeting them:

"He was known for literally embracing his female followers—a forbidden
practice among Orthodox jews."[4]

His standards of comportment were viewed as being too lax by Orthodox
colleagues, distancing him from the Haredi establishment
which adheres to the laws of shomer negiah (whereby physical
contact with a member of the opposite sex is only permitted with one's spouse
and very close relatives). An anecdote is told that when Carlebach was asked
about his lack of adherence to the laws of shomer negiah by one yeshiva
student, he responded (in a manner very uncharacteristic to him), "When your
foolish rabbi knows as much as the average gentile about the Torah, come back
and ask me the same question."